This guide will cover how to set up your account and workernames and which ports to use. It will also cover how to configure various mining software on your computer. You will also find information about Minera, a front end mining platform that comes pre-configured with all of the relevant software. Lastly there is a detailed introduction to Nicehash and how to use it on this pool. Installing mining software is beyond the scope of this guide. There are plenty of resources available on the internet with detailed information on how to do this for your specific platform and hardware. If you are stuck though, contact us and we'll do our best to help you out.

First things first

You will need a Linx Address to register. This avoids payment issues and makes sure that your payments are going to a valid address. If you don't already have one you can download a Linx wallet for your OS here.

Then go to "File > Save as" and save the file as "MineLinx.bat" in the same folder containing your miners application files. You are now ready to mine, double click on "MineLinx.bat" to start mining. If you want, you can create additional workers with usernames and passwords of your choice here.

Using Minera

Newer Scrypt ASICs like the Antminer L3+ come supplied with a built in network interface. You basically just connect and power them up, log into them via a web browser, set your pool details and off you go. But this usually isn't the case for older ASIC hardware. In some cases it can be very time consuming and frustrating (especially on Windows machines) to set up the compatible mining software on your host computer.

Minera is a superb all in one mining software platform available for Linux and, more interestingly, there is also a specific ARM build for the ridiculously affordable Raspberry Pi. Pi's are favoured by miners using ASIC hardware like Gridseed Orbs or Blades or Zeus Blizzards as they are very cheap to buy (or replace if needed) and they consume a tiny amount of electricity to run. This means not only a bigger return for the miners financially, but also the Pi's are pretty much "switch on and forget about" as they require little to no maintenance. They are also tiny, a Pi is not much bigger than a credit card!

Minera comes installed with all of the latest and most stable versions of just about every bit of mining software you will need. You simply download the pre-built disc image, burn it on to your SD card, pop the card in the Pi, connect your miners via USB and you are almost ready to go. Depending on what ASIC hardware you are using, you select the compatible software from a dropdown list, enter your pool details, save it and start mining!

You can read more about it and download the free disc images at the Minera website. There is also a very active thread on BitcoinTalk if you need help or have any issues.

Using Nicehash

Nicehash is a mining rental service that supplies hashpower for all algorithms including Scrypt, which Linx uses. You don't need any hardware or software to use it, everything is done via a web browser. It works by pooling together a collective of miners from all over the world that rent their computing power to Nicehash. Nicehash then sell that on to buyers. The buyer pays Nicehash and then Nicehash pay the miners. The buyer then receives the coins they mined on their chosen pool with their rented hashpower directly into their coin wallet.

You can rent hashpower from Nicehash and point it to the pool here so you can mine Linx. We have a dedicated Nicehash port (3333) set at the required difficulty level for the enormous amounts of hashpower that they can provide.

First you need to create an account at Nicehash and deposit some BTC into your wallet there to pay for any contracts. Once that's all done you can get going...

Adding a pool

The details you will need to enter are pretty much the same as outlined above without all of the definitions (-u or -p for example). Over in your Nicehash account you simply go to For Buyers > My Pools and then add a new pool. Using our example above this is how it would look. Note : the PORT is 3333, your Nicehash order will terminate prematurely if you supply the wrong port. It's also good practice to click the "TEST POOL" button after setting up a new pool. This will run the required tests and make sure that everything has been set up correctly.

Once you've set up your pool you head over the "marketplace" and select the Scrypt algorithm. When there you will have two choices of how to purchase hashpower. Standard or Fixed.

Standard Rate

This is where you bid for hashpower. You set a price, based on the current list of bids in the marketplace, and hope that miners will take you up on your offer and start mining for you. Standard contracts are cheaper than fixed rate ones, but you will find that miners will drop in and out of your order as the fixed rate price fluctuates. This can be frustrating if you are mining for a specific purpose, maybe the Linx nethash is low at the moment giving you a better shot at finding more blocks? If time is of the essence selecting a fixed rate may be a better option.

Fixed Rate

More expensive, fixed rates guarantee that you will get the amount of hashpower you are buying for the selected duration without any breaks. Once a fixed rate contract has begun it will run until it expires. Miners can't stop mining for you during the contract even if the current market price for the hashpower you purchased shoots up drastically. The only way it can be stopped is if there is a probem with the pool or with Nicehash itself, in which case Nicehash could cancel the contract and will refund your remaining balance.

A note about prices - they fluctuate constantly. It sometimes pays to wait a few minutes as the price can drop. Of course it can also go up as well. Use your best judgement.

The Marketplace

Switching between Standard and Fixed will show the different rates as mentioned above. For this example we will use the Fixed rate. Here comes the part that can be confusing for first time users... The price of Scrypt hashpower is calculated as follows.

x BTC for 1GH of Mining for 24 hrs

As you will see in the screen shot below, the current price for 1 GH is 0.0109 BTC. That doesn't mean that you have to buy a whole GH, you can order 0.3 GH for example. This is just how they work out the price.

First of all you want to select the pool you just created from the dropdown menu. Then you enter how much hashpower you want in the LIMIT field. In the AMOUNT field you enter how much you want to spend on the contract. Once you have entered all of those details it will dynamically update and show you a rough estimate of how long your contract will mine for (APPROXIMATE DURATION). You can then tweak your figures to find the right balance between speed, cost and duration until you are happy. After clicking the Terms checkbox you will see the green Place Order button. Hit it and you are off!

Using our example above this is how it would look if johndoe was ordering 2 GH/s of Hashpower at a fixed rate and wanted to spend a maximum of 0.0099 BTC. As you can see, at the current rate that would give him 10hrs 54 minutes of mining.

As soon as you place your order you can monitor it's progress on Nicehash, as well as here at the pool.

It's very simple to use once you know how but it can be confusing for first timers so check out the excellent video below for a more in depth look at how to use it. The site has changed it's GUI since this video was made (making it even easier to use) and fixed rate contracts were not available at the time, but the principles you will see here are the same.